Get to Know Our Cass Art Student Ambassadors: Part One

The Cass Art Student Ambassador Programme is a voluntary opportunity-filled year designed to give 45 creative students across the UK hands-on experience in the arts industry. Throughout the year, these students are mentored by Cass Art staff as they organise their own events, write for the Cass Art blog and run in-store workshops and pop-up shops. They also have the opportunity to exhibit their artwork at the Cass Art annual show, receive product freebies and build networks with people from a variety of different backgrounds.

Over the next two months, we'll be running a four-part feature on the Cass Art Student Ambassador Programme. Our aim is to give you a sneak peak into the artistic practice of this talented group of students as well as providing links to their websites and instagram accounts for you to find out more. For this installment we introduce you to Jessica Hughes, Joanna Lawn, Alice Fry, Shivani Sarjan, Lucy Llorente, Daisy Elias, Susannah Felstead and Olivia Cooke.

Image credits: Olivia Cooke (left) and Susannah Felstead (right)

Susannah Felstead: 2nd year Illustration and Animation at Kingston University

Originally encouraged by reading the Beano, Susannah is primarily interested in comics and work based around humour. She states "I'm really excited to help Cass Art ‘fill this town with artists’ because I do genuinely believe that art, craft, and design needs its profile raised so that more people can get involved than ever before, which is wonderful. Ever since I was at school getting told off at parents’ evening for doodling and not always being serious about my work, I have been inspired to doodle more and be less serious, to the extent that I now create often not-very-serious work, and doodle more than ever, hooray! Historical themes, comics, graphic novels, that’s what really floats my boat at the moment. What I’m aiming for next is to work on a more diverse range of surfaces be it ceramic, glass, or wood- to escape from that A4 page!

While Olivia is studying English at university, she also enjoys walking around the city with a sketchbook in hand and capturing still-life. She also goes to a lot of life-drawing events based either on campus, or organised by societies at the university and plans to develop a scheme in which art can be used as a tool to raise awareness about social issues prevalent both in Bristol and across the world. Olivia states: "Art is a powerful medium in which many people can come together and share their experiences through either paint, print, or sketching. In my role as Student Ambassador, I hope to enhance Cass Art's presence at the University of Bristol by encouraging students from a variety of disciplines to get involved and try whatever form of art they want to. Art shouldn’t be relegated only to students who study a more arts-based degree. Art is inclusive, not exclusive".

Alice Fry: 2nd year Silversmithing and Jewellery Design at Glasgow School of Art

Alice states "I have always known that jewellery making is the career that I wanted to pursue and from a very young age I have been painting and making very basic forms of jewellery. At the age of 14, I made my first brass ring when I had one-to-one sessions with a jeweller in La Gomera. This sparked my interest from stringing beads into thread and into something more. Since studying at GSA, I have worked much more sculpturally, using paper and plastics in first year and now I am moving onto metalwork. Observing the world around me is as much an integral part of designing and making as the metalworking skills. I see my part in the jewellery industry as translating my understanding of the world and nature into a wearable sculptural piece that the wearer can connect to".

Shivani Sarjan: 2nd year Architectural Studies at University of Strathclyde

While Shivani studies Architecture at university, she is also a practising artist and recently set up The University of Strathclyde Art Society. She states that "Art is a language - one that everyone uses, some daily. I, as an artist, use it to communicate and explore; both my own ideas and those of others. I believe that people don't need to consciously understand every piece of art but subconsciously form a strong connection to it. Although my work largely falls under contemporary (abstract) art, I experiment with styles, usually creating a body work with each. Most people then connect to aspects of my work — then subconsciously understanding it".

Daisy studies Civil Engineering at University but very much views herself as an artist and is interested in portraits, human figures and anatomy. Regularly using herself as a model, Daisy states that “exploring the human figure of women has proved to be very controversial because many people tend to associate nudity with sexuality. This means preconceived ideas can influence their views towards my artwork. The observer must understand that the human body has imperfections and that those imperfections are what make the artwork beautiful".

Lucy Llorente: 2nd year Illustration and Animation at Kingston University

Lucy states that she’s definitely more of a ‘maker’ than anything else and, as much as she enjoys drawing, she really appreciates having a physical object that you can hold and touch. In her current work, she’s experimenting with how she can integrate technology to make her work more interactive, for instance using augmented reality apps and touch sensors so a printed map will play a soundtrack when you touch it. After graduation she wants to work in community arts and arts education, so she can share her passion for creativity with other people.

Art history is a major part of Jessica's practice. She states that "an artist must look back in time in order to produce a truly unique piece of artwork whilst also taking inspiration from some of the 'Greats', such Michelangelo or Vincent van Goth. This is exactly what I try to achieve with my own artwork. Each piece that I create gives breath to a new concept or idea that I will transcribe onto my next project; whether this be a certain colour that I discovered on my palette or an idea which I simply couldn’t fit onto the canvas". Jessica's main area of practice is portraits, whether that be of people or of animals, as she believes that this is the best way to capture the nature of the subject and their personality.

Joanna Lawn's art practice varies broadly from drawing, painting, print, conceptual art and photography. At the core of her practice is expression of her own experience, varying from gender and sexuality, family life and loss, mental health and many other things. Joanna states ‘I don't mind if people don't always receive my artwork in the way that I think of it. It's a way of visualising how I experience the world, so of course other people will experience my art, in turn, differently’.